John Motley's diary

Recent diary entries

This is a problem.
Mauls shows the route going south as:-
Cross the harbour by the footbridge;
Turn left and follow 'Quayside' all the way round.
Climb the steps into the car park to reach the Old Grammar School.
Then there is a gap in the route until the next waymark at junction of Queen Street and Farrants Way.

The IOM Survey 1:25,000 shows a different route:-
From the footbridge turn RIGHT up Quayside to the Police Station.
Turn left into Castle Street up to the square.
Cross the square (The Parade) to Queen Street.
Pick up the waymarked path at the junction with Farrants Way.

I've walked the area today, and found no waymarks between the footbridge and Farrants Way.
The designated IOM Survey route is the clearest on the ground.
However, given the lack of waymarks, I'm reluctant to change Mauls' route.
In real life, Castletown is a natural start/finish or break point, so I don't think it matters anyway.

DECISION: I have added way 230335905 (Service Road /Parking Aisle) and added it to the nwn route to fill the gap.

Completed route from Port Erin clockwise to Ramsey as follows:-
17/7/13 preparation - 19/7/13 added ways to Raad Ny Foillan route.
Glen Mooar - Glen Wyllin
New way on beach 230239966
Joined to 25989431 at Glen Mooar and 25987545 at Glen Wyllin
Ballarhennie - Ramsey
New way on beach 230240319
Joined to 40509060 at Ballarhennie and 25987685 Mooragh Promenade
Note: Existing footpaths at Ballarhenny Beg are offset, so split
Orrisdale Road to fill the gap.

SOUND CAFE GAP - existing is slightly wrong. There is a way existing seaward of the carpark.
Other end of Rad Ny Foillan path was wrongly attached to the car park landuse booundary,
So tidied up.

PORT ERIN SCRAP - A problem, 'Mauls' current route is wrong.
IOM Gov 1:25000 shows RNF along the upper promenade, and along the road to the (walking) entrance to Bradda Glen. There is a waymak at the corner of Strand Road and Shore Road, so I suspect the correct route is to turn at Pye's house and up the concrete slope to the Upper Prom.
Trouble is, the Mauls' route is much nicer!
DECISION - Delete the detached part part of RNF, as that is definitely wrong anyway!

TO DO - Route through Ramsey - route around Ballure Glen not clear - needs visit.
Then the whole thing down the coast to Onchan.
Trouble is, I don't know much of it except Clay Head.
That can be a job for someone else!

Note:- Route on E side of Spanish Head looks wrong compared to 1:25000
Trouble is, I haven't walked that for 20 years. Time to buy GPS?

Changed Southampton Farm label to Ard Na Mara
(To do- add new Southampton farm.)
? Is the label for a locality or a building?

Fixed Crogga River through Port Soderick Glen.
The 'way' was actually Crogga River plus a tributary (unknown name)
So split into two ways, and put name on correct upper stretch of the Crogga River.
Created new "Stream" way for the lower river by tracing over parish boundary. Then for the final reach to the sea, (where the boundary does not follow the river) traced on Bing. Deleted old lower stream, as this was half way up the hill!
Note: My new "Crogga River lower stream does not reach the sea.
This is physically correct, the river does end in a pool and disappear under the beach.
Just that I'm not sure if this is the right treatment for mapping.

"Stanton" railway station.
Finally worked out that there are two labels, and how to fix it.
The typo is attached to the IOM Steam Railway route, so need to select that route first, then select the railway station marker attached to the route - simples!

Building outlines and names for 25 houses in Ballaveare Hamlet.
Walked up & down the road to get them in the right order, then checked spellings with family and other sources.
Not finished yet, but this is addictive. Will likely continue into Quines Hill, until I get fed up of tracing boxes.

Private road to Arragon and public footpaths in the area would be good.
Are OSM permitted to use data from IOM Gov survey, and is this at a suitable scale?
Would GPS survey be better in any case?
Is anyone working on public footpaths in general?

Santan church not marked, but the Old Vicarage is.
Is there a job for someone to mark all active IOM churches?
(To include 'Cat with no tail' pub!)

Port Grenaugh Road is mislabeled as Ballavale road.
(probably drawn as one 'way', then split)

The OSM data is vastly superior to Google, but the Port Soderick area could benefit from addition of much more detail.

1) Port Soderick Glen
Would be good just to have a label! Land use should be shown as woodland, and the wildflower meadow shown. Position of river needs fixing (boundary is probably accurate)
There is a small error on one footpath (but otherwise seems to be accurately mapped)

2) Old Castletown Road
Always difficult to give directions to our house. Wouldn't it be great if OSM had house names and building outlines for the area.

3) Arragon
Syd was part of the battle to stop the landowners extinguishing the footpath rights over this private road. It is an absolute tragedy that neither the road, or many of the footpaths are shown.

But where to start?
Conscious that I could damage other peple's data. Need to get in touch with local OSM community (if any active) Good start would be to ask Juan.